Recapitalization of Canadian Navy Could Alter How Ships Are Built, Official Says

By Geoff Fein

The Canadian navy is beginning to explore recapitalizing its fleet of auxiliary and combat vessels in a way that could alter how the government there builds ships in the future, according to a Canadian navy official.

Approximately two years ago, the Canadian government laid out a well-defined recapitalization program for the navy that included the HMCS Protecteur and HMCS Perserver Auxiliary Oil Replenishment (AOR) ships, building new ships for operations not only offshore, but in the Arctic, and a Canadian surface combatant to replace both the HMCS Iroquois-class destroyers and HMCS Halifax-class frigates as well, Vice Adm. P.D. McFadden, Canadian Forces chief of maritime staff, told Defense Daily yesterday.

“All of that is identified in the Canada First Defense Strategy. The reason that becomes such a powerful document for a fellow like me is that it is not just a policy statement. It actually lays out types of ships, numbers of ships, and establishes money assigned to be able to do it,” he said. “That really does establish the recapitalization program of the Canadian navy over the next 20 years.”

The Canadian navy has already started on the strategy, McFadden added.

“For the Halifax class we have already started the process of how do we bring that [Canada] first defense strategy into play. One of the follow-on government initiatives is a national shipbuilding procurement strategy to fundamentally examine the way we do ship construction in Canada,” he said.

That initiative was announced in July ’09 and government engagement with the defense industry is already underway, McFadden said.

Along with the Canadian navy, the Ministry of Fisheries and Oceans, the Industry Ministry, public works, and, most recently, the Treasury Board, have been involved in the discussions.

“There is undeniably fairly sophisticated discussions going on to bring into play a national shipbuilding procurement strategy,” McFadden said.

The purpose of a national shipbuilding procurement strategy for the Canadian navy would be to engage with industry in a way that could fundamentally alter how ships are built in Canada, he noted.

One of the challenges for the Canadian navy is that while shipbuilders in that country build superb ships, McFadden said, they are built in a “boom-bust” cycle.

For example, McFadden pointed to the Halifax class. All 12 Halifax-class frigates were built in a relatively compressed period of time, he said.

“One of the difficulties inherent in that is that they all get 15 years older, 20 years older, 15, 20 years down the road,” he said. “The modernization life extension program we are just starting for that class will take them off line almost at the same rate we built them.”

Because the entire class of frigates are all reaching that stage where they need modernization, “boom-bust” doesn’t just impact at the start of a shipbuilding program but “echoes all the way through the life of that ship,” McFadden said.

What the Canada First Defense Strategy affords is a program sufficiently laid out. “This is a construction program over dozens of years with dozens of billions of dollars allocated to do it,” he said.

“To some degree, that provides the opportunity for a game changer in how we go about doing that business,” McFadden added. There are still questions that need to be discussed, McFadden noted, for example, how does the Canadian navy bring a national shipbuilding procurement strategy into place, is it viable. Those discussions, he added, are ongoing.

As the customer, McFadden said he is delighted with the potential the shipbuilding strategy could have.

“What I see is a strategic relationship in construction that isn’t ‘boom-bust.’ It’s not any one specific project that I am looking at,” he said.

The effort would include a joint support ship to replace the AORs, and introduction of a new capability–a patrol ship with Arctic capabilities, as well as replacements for major surface combatants, McFadden said.

“The national shipbuilding procurement strategy doesn’t look at those necessarily as one-offs. It produces an entire program of development and construction over 20 years. That is a potential game changer, which as the customer, would be of real use,” he added.

But McFadden doesn’t see the Canadian navy going outside to buy ships from allies.

“I don’t think there is any doubt we will build ships in Canada. And, to tell you the truth, I have spent a whole bunch of my life abroad a Canadian frigate, I am biased, but I think we build the best frigates in the world,” he said. “I don’t have any doubt about the quality, and it is undeniably a policy we will do that construction in Canada…absolutely.”

Does it mean Canada will need to build ships the way it has done in the past? McFadden said, “no.”

“In addition to looking at potentially our own designs, based upon our own requirements, [we will] also investigate what other designs there are to either employ some of those capabilities [or] to look at how that’s done,” he said. “The process of making sure that what we are going to get is the best value for our dollar has to be a fundamental part of the program of ship construction.”